Blood Products Makers Agree

Aids Settlement Moves Forward

November 26, 1996

Four health-care companies said Monday they will go ahead with a settlement to pay $640 million to U.S. hemophiliacs who contracted the AIDS virus from contaminated blood products.

More than 90 percent of the hemophiliac patients infected with the AIDS virus have approved the settlement proposed by Deerfield-based Baxter International Inc., Armour Pharmaceutical/Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., Bayer AG and Alpha Therapeutic Corp.

The announcement came after markets closed and after a hearing in U.S. District Court in Chicago. The four companies proposed to pay $100,000 each to an estimated 6,000 hemophiliacs who contracted the virus from contaminated blood products used between Jan. 1, 1978, and June 30, 1985. The remaining $40 million would go to lawyers and administrative fees.

Two main issues remain to be resolved, according to a spokesman for the companies. One is to determine who is eligible to receive the settlement. The other concerns claims against the payouts that hemophiliacs will receive for past and future Medicare and insurance payments.